


Patience

by just_ann_now



Category: Swordspoint Series - Ellen Kushner
Genre: First Meetings, First Time, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-06
Updated: 2011-11-06
Packaged: 2017-10-25 18:57:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/273648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/just_ann_now/pseuds/just_ann_now
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been a while for Richard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Patience

Richard has been without a lover for some time. Certainly it isn't for lack of opportunity. There are several friendly whores he had met early on and still occasionally visits (though none from Rosalie's; that would be like causing trouble in the family). There are old friends he could call upon, up on the Hill, who have made it very clear that they would enjoy seeing him again, particularly under circumstances that involve warm beds rather than cold steel.

It wasn't a conscious decision to take a rest from emotional entanglements after Jessamyn. Jessamyn: beautiful and wild, a fey creature, with thick, dark hair she wrapped around them like a veil. What she didn't know about sex hadn't been invented yet. For a young man, fresh from the country, she was bedazzling. He was the one who had let his temper get the best of him, though everyone said she was just as like to have killed _him_ one day. He knows now exactly what went wrong, and how to make sure it never happens again.

But all that is behind him now. In terms of sex, it's just simpler to handle things himself. Sometimes he feels as though he's waiting, waiting for something to happen, without the slightest idea what it will be. But something will come up. Something always does.

~*~

Desire rises in him, fierce and bright, the unexpected return of a long-absent friend. _Breathe,_ he tells himself, _just breathe. He's just a student, probably took a wrong turn at the bridge._ Yet he knows that is not true; the man has been dicing here four nights out of the last six, winning enough to be interesting, losing enough to be welcome. And he has that same wild glint in his eye that Jessamyn had sometimes, that fey air.

With a shout of laughter, the game is done, and the man has disengaged himself from the drunkards and cardsharks. He lurches towards Richard like a three-legged cat attempting to stalk prey.

"Hello, I'm Alec," the man says, peering down at Richard from over the rim of his cup. He's very tall. Richard's unruly imagination flashes an image of long bare legs draped up over his shoulders.

"I'm Richard," he replies. "What can I do for you?"

"I have a use for your blade."

 _So do I,_ Richard thinks, but keeps his gaze solemn. With one foot he pushes out a chair, and the scholar crumples himself down into it.

"I understand you kill people for money."

"I do, if there's a challenge to it. And the proper forms are followed."

"Would you kill me? "

"Why? If someone had wanted you dead, it probably would already have happened."

The scholar barks a laugh. "No, no one else hates me enough to pay good money to get rid of me. If they did, things would be much simpler. Freezing to death, I've found, is taking too long, and it's uncomfortable besides. Couldn't you just kill me for the practice?"

"I don't need the practice. But if you need a warm bed for the night, I can provide that."

"Really." The man pulls himself upright. "Altruism, I've discovered is a myth, and like most myths, is in complete disregard nowadays. What would you want in return for such generosity?"

Just for a moment, Richard allows his glance to slip, roaming over the young man's body.

A slow flush rises on the man's face. "I'm not a whore," he says.

Richard smiles. "I never said you were. I was treated generously when I arrived here in Riverside; now I'm paying it forward."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Well then," the scholar replies, "who am I to stand in the way of your moral principles?"

 

~*~

Richard starts slowly, with the softest of kisses to the man's eyelids, brushing that mane of chestnut hair back to nuzzle his throat. The scholar groans, arching and grinding against Richard, skin on skin. Richard breathes in the sharp tang of the their arousal, moving lower and lower, teasing with lips and tongue and well-practiced fingers, licking and stroking there and there and _there..._

A sharp hiss of breath, and sudden tension in what had been a deliciously pliant body. Richard looks up, startled. "Don't you want...?"

"Yes, of course, I _want_ ," the man gasps, "but, you see, ah, this is embarrassing. When you asked, 'Have you ever?' yes, I have, some, but not that. Kissing, yes, of course, and some groping, some mutual groping, but never actually, ah, never actually, that. What I think you're about to do."

"I'm sorry, I assumed....I thought, University students, people always hearing about the drinking, and the drugs, and, well, the 'loose morals.' "

"Well, what do 'people' know? We did spend some time studying, too, and debating, and academic research. Higher Mathematics. Natural Sciences. The stars, oh, and so many other things. But there was never very much privacy, and who wants to take the chance of someone walking in on you doing _that_? So I never really..."

"We don't have to, you know. Kissing and groping certainly works well for me."

"No, I want to. I want you to."

"Are you _sure_ , Alec?"

"Yes. Yes, I am."

Richard is slow and careful. The bed creaks. Alec cries out; Richard groans in answer.

Afterwards they curl around each other like cats, their breathing the only sound.

"I want to..." Alec whispers into the dark.

"Yes." The bed creaks. Richard hums, gasps with pleasure; Alec howls in triumph.

~*~

Awakened by the noise, Richard's landlady looks up towards the ceiling and laughs. "About damn time," she says; rolls over and goes back to sleep.


End file.
